Dark Aberration
by HenrySugargotthereference
Summary: Two males. A destiny sanctioned by the Earth Mother and rejected by the Carpathian people.


AN: I use \m/ for page breaks. Italics are another language or dreams, etc. Forgive my grammar mishaps, this is not beta read. I am not up on all the dates of when Xavier began to decimate the race, so I made them whatever fit best with this story. Cheers.

_He had worn out their name and reformed it in shame. _

\m/

There is nothing a seven year old hates more than not being taken seriously.

Had Abram not heard the small sharp intake of breath to his right, unmistakably from his mother, he'd be unsure he had been heard at all. To his young eyes he'd not noticed the tensing of the well-dressed people around him, just that conversation continued around him without pause. Abram didn't totally understand the nuance of mind conversation at his young age but thought he did and it didn't seem as if anyone was paying any attention to him at all. Abram believed he'd draw everyone's attention into silence like when the Prince of all the Carpathian people spoke and every noise stopped in the room. Abram thought he'd be the bearer of many congratulations and pats on the back and maybe he'd even get a little of that bubbly champagne that the young but unchanged Carpathians had gotten; they looked older than Abram but he was seven and three-quarter years old, plenty old enough.

Abram wanted to get at least some drama after his speech, even just a little, not this boring polite nothing. Abram hated boring and it wasn't every day a male Carpathian found their lifemate, especially when so young. Abram was special. His news was exciting, wasn't it? He'd even chosen the best place for it, at the yearly gathering—when there had still been enough of their kind that such a thing was safe enough to happen—and there were more Carpathian's here then he'd ever remember seeing in his short life. Last year he'd been sick and unable to attend, the years before he'd been too young to really remember.

So, when they'd all been gathered in the ballroom of Prince's house (after he'd spent a good ten minutes looking around in awe at the shiny fixtures and equally shiny people) Abram had loudly announced, "Mother, Father, I've found my lifemate." Here he took a dramatic pause for effect. "It is Viktor Jankaroth." Of course Abram had spoken loud enough so almost everyone could hear but he didn't want to be rude and _actually_ address everyone.

Abram had known he'd done something wrong when his Mother had looked down at him with that look. The one she reserved for when he'd done something very, very, bad like run off into the forest by himself without telling his mama or papa or accidentally leave the candle burning all night _because that could start a fire Abram_.

Abram's father had chuckled after his pronouncement, and not noticing anything about how forced the sound really was, Abram was about to go into a pout. Where were his congratulations? His starched suit started to itch.

Abram's mother had took to her knees in her beautiful silvery-white gown stitched with flowery lace along the hem and his father had stood behind Abram grabbing his shoulders with black leather gloves still on, thumb digging into the birthmark on Abram's back. Abram knew he was about to be told something important, his eyes widened and his pout was forgotten. Abram's mind was settling on inane details as one will before whatever shattering news was to come. The flickering candles in their gold stems distracted him, his odd eyes giving the room a dichotomy, the world as always in half shades of grey, half in colour.

"Dearest, look at me. Listen to me." Abram's mother's eyes probed at him, pleading at him to understand something, yet he didn't know what.

"You cannot have a male lifemate, that is not possible." The words were firm and the hands gripping his shoulders had tightened, signifying the importance of the words and quelling the denial that wanted to burst out of Abram's lips.

From behind him his father had reiterated in his deep cultured voice, "Listen to your mother Abram, she is telling you a truth. You should not try to spread lies and tell tales."

At this, Abram really did need to defend himself, he looked pleadingly at his mother, feeling embarrassed. "But Mother, I _am_ telling the truth."

"Nonsense." She said sternly. His mother's eyes flicked up to behind his shoulder at his father and her eyes took on that look that told Abram his mama and papa were talking to each other silently. Abram knew not to speak because he truly was in trouble now. Abram's mother was never cross like this and his mama and papa didn't often leave him out of their conversations.

It was his mother who finally spoke, nearly a minute later. "Since you clearly cannot behave yourself we will have to take you home. You know we do not approve of telling lies or being rude. Yuri, go give our apologies to the Prince, tell him we will hopefully rejoin the party tomorrow." His mama firmly took Abram's hand and moved toward the door, suiting him up for the colder weather outside. The silver thread in her dress glimmered in the candlelight and he focused on that rather than what he felt were the eyes of the entire portion of Carpathians at the assembly and the angry frustrated pressure behind his own eyes.

It was the first time Abram had been made to feel shame and confusion at the lifemate the Earth Mother had bound him to but it certainly wasn't the last.

_Abram's family didn't return to the house of the Carpathian ruler the next evening. They fled. _


End file.
